Robotic-milking size advances

Lynn Grooms
May 30, 2023
May 30, 2023

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Cows are milked by a DeLaval VMS robotic milker installed in 2020 at Zwieg's Maple Acres near Ixonia, Wisconsin.

Lynn Grooms/Agri-View

DeLaval robotic milking system barn pattern

A freestall barn is designed for a robotic milking system at Zwieg's Maple Acres. After cows leave the DeLaval robot they walk counter-clockwise to their feed bunk and resting area.

Lynn Grooms/Agri-View

A cow is milked by a Lely robotic milker.

Contributed

A cow is milked by a Lely robotic system.

Contributed

At the forefront of new technology being used in the United Kingdom's dairy-research center are robotic milking machines, increasing the University of Nottingham farm’s Lely Astronaut robotic milking machines from four to eight. Cows decide when they're ready to be milked and enter the milking machine, where motorized brushes clean the teats before laser-guided milking cups attach themselves automatically.

Chris McCullough/For Agri-View

First Robotic Milking System in Wisconsin

The first milking robots in Wisconsin were installed in 2000 at Knigge Farms of Omro, Wisconsin.

UW-Madison

Lynn Grooms

Robotic milking systems have continued to improve since the first milking robots in Wisconsin were installed in 2000 at Knigge Farms near Omro, Wisconsin. Upgraded components, more-accurate attachment of milking units and improved control algorithms have continued to improve the user experience more than two decades later, said Doug Reinemann, a professor of biological-systems engineering and associate dean of the University of Wisconsin-Division of Extension.

Lynn Grooms writes about the diversity of agriculture, including the industry’s newest ideas, research and technologies as a staff reporter for Agri-View based in Wisconsin.